


The Distance between Insanity and Genius

by treewishes



Category: Killing Eve (TV 2018)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 17:53:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17047835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treewishes/pseuds/treewishes
Summary: Carolyn Martens saw her life as a series of great opportunities disguised as impossible situations.





	The Distance between Insanity and Genius

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Persiflager](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflager/gifts).



She stepped off the train and herded her wayward charges into the airport. If there was one thing Carolyn Martens was good at, it was shepherding. Although usually in a more metaphysical sense. Shepherding began with asking people to do impossible things, and asking it in such a way that showed them you expected the impossible to be done. Then you moved those people into position. Put them in teams. Let them interact. Nudged them if necessary. 

And occasionally let them wander a bit, one couldn’t avoid that with so many balls in the air. But she kept the general direction always forward. 

Balls in the air. She should say that to Eve at some point. It would really set her off.

Well, maybe not while Kenny was in earshot.

The security line was maneuverable, but neither Eve nor Kenny were paying enough attention to take advantage of it. Sometimes she wondered how Eve made it through the day, so distracted, so many details seemingly evading her grasp. 

She placed her luggage on the belt and watched the agent out of the corner of her eye. There was always a tiny chance that her tote would trip their alarms, though it never had. She kept a bag of cheese puffs strategically tucked in next to her Nero Wolfe novel. She always made sure to get some of the cheese chemical on her hands in case of a randomized swipe test. She couldn’t imagine eating the vile things, but there was no security “specialist” in any airport that could see past that much powdered cheese to find the knife in the hinge of her tote or the poisons in her one-liter bag.

Eve again demonstrated her lack of attention to detail, as she dropped one glove, then her scarf, and then her other glove. Kenny struggled to help, but it was really no use. As she waited – patiently – for them to gather their things, she reminded herself that people were assets. It didn’t matter who, or what side they thought they were on, all people were useful in their way, witting or unwitting. They could be especially useful when they thought they were in control of their lives. 

Of course, they so rarely were. 

Her first head of station, for example. She let him play grabby hands for a while, but it hadn’t worked out well for him in the end. Her philosophy had always been to let people blunder on if there was no harm in it (like Brexit, or the 12; neither would have much impact on her, whatever direction they took); but when something did matter, she steered the situation carefully to ensure everything worked out as it should.

They arrived at their gate, exactly one hour prior to departure, as planned. She surveyed the gate agents and the other passengers, satisfying herself that all was well. While Kenny and the younger agents had many useful tools, they paled in comparison to the ability to size people up at a glance.

It was a skill she had developed at a young age, to be able to see people, through their defenses. Once you had done that, you could tell them what they wanted to hear. The more chaos in a person’s life, for example, the easier it was to introduce a tiny seed of order. Most people would grab onto it like a lifeline. 

Eve and Villanelle were the opposite. They both seemed to crave chaos over order. And they both could create a massive amount of chaos at any given moment. While Carolyn found it painfully easy to know what Eve was thinking in the moment, she never knew where her thoughts were going to go next. 

Eve took a call from Niko. It was clear she would never go home to her husband and his mustache, or set her detective skills to finding a lost neighborhood cat. She had the bug now, and was not going to let it go. Why had she married at all? Had she just wandered into it? 

Husbands, like all people, were assets after all. Carolyn herself had married young for stability and to establish a cover. Young, single women were remarked on; young wives were not. Stuart was an MI5 agent and he didn't know or care that she was an MI6 agent. Her second husband was also a cover of a sort, as she was pregnant. Daniel had been just the right father for Kenny, as she knew he would be. And then there was Charles, whom she had targeted for his connections. He worked in 10 Downing Street and gave her casual access to so much during those years. And she gave him cover as well, making sure all of his liaisons with younger men were never noted by anyone who would care.

And now there was Jonas, the husband expecting her for dinner tonight. He was an entrepreneur, and she had married him for his money. It wasn't that she didn't have plenty of it, it was that she needed to have a visible source for it. He thought she was a fashion buyer. It was a good cover, and she liked to take some credit for the flattering yet comfortable slingbacks entering the market this year.

Jonas was good with her son as well. She had sent Kenny off to boarding school as a child; now that he was a young man, she should take some time to reassess him. She put a note on her phone to schedule that. She couldn’t really continue employing him, now, and she would have to find something else for him. Heaven knew he couldn’t do it.

She sighed. One had to compartmentalize, but also see the big picture. It was not an easy job. She had made sacrifices, and perhaps Kenny was one of them. But then, she wouldn’t have been able to set things right in Prague if she was fawning over Kenny. Or settle that nasty business in Munich. Konstantin had been a rock in Munich and she was so grateful to have him. 

She smiled to herself. Whenever she was in Moscow, of course. 

She hoped he would recover quickly. It was a nasty gut would, but really, it was all of his own doing. She could see Konstantin’s fingerprints all over Villanelle.

Villanelle had been an interesting challenge. She was an assassin at her core, with a decided flair for the dramatic. An interesting foil for Eve, who was at heart an analyst, always observing and assembling the data.

Carolyn had been both a top assassin and a top analyst. Perhaps that was why she had never needed a partner. Talking to Eve and Villanelle felt like trying to send advice to her younger self. One’s younger self, of course, never listened. 

Both Eve and Villanelle had mastered the art of obfuscation. Words came out of their mouths, but there was almost never anything useful. It was an effective strategy; tell people what they want to hear while being as truthful as possible. The truth engendered trust. Saying what they wanted to hear forced them to listen.

Perhaps that was why the two women were obsessed: each excelled at their specialty, but also felt the other woman had something crucial that she herself was lacking. Like yin and yang. Fire and water. Insanity and genius.

It was true that opposites made the best partners. Now that was a thought. 

She made a note in her phone.

**Author's Note:**

> “The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success”  
> ― Ian Fleming


End file.
